LFG Session 12: What To Do?

Run Date: October 1st, 2022

I burned a bit of session time with brownies and ice cream for a bit of pre-birthday fun, and topped it off with some bad news about my schedule changing.

PCs

Rebel: Lv3 Monk

Karthalion: Lv1 Ranger

Hallow: Lv1 Cultist

What to do?

With Richard and Arken out for quite a while, it was time to rotate in some secondary characters. Hallow made a return after her investigation wrapped up in Alfstead a few weeks back and Karthalion joined the crew anew.

We opened with a bit of discussion about what to do. Today was the first day of Corvis Rising, and the beginning of the festivals that would be running all month. The group decided to check out some of the festivities and see if anything interesting was going on. Onward to the riverside.

Crowds had gathered along the bridges and traffic was beginning to slow to a crawl. While none of the events had officially kicked off yet, there were no shortage of entertainers, travelers, and revelers. The party noticed a particularly large crowd around an eight foot creature with massive horns, a red face, and open mouth with curled white fangs. They could only see it from the shoulders up, but saw that the creature was making dramatic poses, scaring some of the crowd, and signing... autographs. Rebel and Hallow found this last bit particularly interesting and decided to pick up a flyer and purchase an "autograph" from the creature. The flyer read: "The Trade Council is proud to present: Pact of the Tengu! A Heian story performed by the Ishiku City Actors! Performances will be held weekly starting on the first day of Corvis Rising at the landing docks across from Miller Street!"

Alongside the demon creature were other costumed actors dressed in all sorts of Heian garment and mask (the aforementioned Tengu being the most prominent). Kathalion had little interest in the ladies' little side venture so headed outside of town to camp out and wait out their shopping spree. Meanwhile, Rebel and Hallow moved around to various stalls to purchase some new clothes.

Some time a little after noon, the party regrouped at Karthalion's camp. They revisited the "What do we want to do?" question and settled on just exploring a bit. They chose to travel south and see what sort of interesting places they could find. Karthalion lead the little expedition, nailing a variety of Wilderness Lore checks as he went. Full Disclosure: I've little experience running anything in a hexcrawl style, and relied heavily on BSing dice rolls around one condition: "There should be more than fights." With that in mind, Karthalion discovered his first point of interest: a circle of dead trees (they're traveling across plains and prairie) with an eight foot pole in the center.

Immediately on edge, the group fell into battle formation and approached the area. Rebel used the tall grass as cover while Karthalion sent Scaley (his large viper) to scout it out. What they discovered was rather harmless: the pole was about 8 inches or so thick and carved with a variety of imagery. Each section was divided by a band of decoration or an unknown language. The sections they looked over included horse men (not to be confused with horsemen) wielding bows and spears fighting with a large avian creature with immense plumage, the growth of a tribe of these horse men, and some other weathered markings of creatures they couldn't make out. The party didn't spend much time looking over the finer details and decided to leave the area and continue heading south.

The second day, Karthalion again leading, the group had a pleasant walk through the changing scenery. They could see the rising hills and forest in the distance... alongside a pillar of black smoke. They party followed the smoke to a hamlet of sorts; about 3 buildings and zero farms. On the approach, they heard an explosion and men screaming. There was a quick back and forth about watching for assaults or bandits, but the PCs favored heroism over cowardice.

The hamlet was set up at the side of a river, with a single dock anchoring a small, strange looking ship. The party couldn't make out the details since said ship was ablaze and sinking fast. Pillars of choking black smoke billowed skyward as flaming crew dove into the water. Rebel rushed to the banks to help pull out whoever she could while Karthalion ran to the foreman to try and figure out what the hell was going on. Unfortunately, the foreman had already yelled himself hoarse and collapsed to his knees as he watched the ship go under. As more and more of the crew made it to shore, they too fell quiet and watched the water boil. It was at this point that Rebel noticed a streak of black goo running in the current. Worse yet, the crew she was helping, and now herself, were covered in it.

Everyone fell as far back from the line of fire as they could, and the river itself went ablaze. Crewmen stripped down and changed as quickly as they could while Rebel regrouped with the others who had flagged down one of the few people not in shock: a well-dressed bodyguard named Octavia. They asked her about the situation, the ship, and the goo; but got nothing other than "Classified" and "There is no town." It took a few for them to get the hint. Nonetheless, Octavia offered them a bribe of 10gp each to disappear and forget about this place's existence. Rebel "haggled" for a set of old clothes to replace her gross ones (that she had purchased two days back), but not before squeezing out a vial of the black goo for later research via Arken.

Easy money in hand, Kathalion lead the group upriver, and into the edge of Crestwood for day 3. The hills and trees made travel more difficult, but Karthalion's guidance kept things running smoothely. Some time a little after noon, he noticed a change in the surrounding ambiance. The river's rippling was joined by a smaller splashing, and he discovered a stream that had cut its way through some of the tree and brush cover. It dropped off into a tiny falls where a semi-hidden 15ft "hole" was situated. It pooled and flowed into the side of a rocky hill and into a cave opening.

Karthalion scouted the area for a safe path down since the side he came in on was a sheer drop. He guided the other two down the hole and to the cave entrance where they fell into formation. Rebel avoided the torch, worrying that her hair still had some residue from the previous day; leaving Hallow to be the bearer. The front rank was Rebel and Scaley followed by Hallow with a torch and Karthalion at the rear.

The cave was less a cave and more a long tunnel. The group followed the water long a straight path until it hit a flat stone and split in two. The right path continued forward while the left continued downward. It took a few minutes to figure out their preference, but down the left they went. A short walk through another straight tunnel lead them to a large pocket and massive cavern with a 5ft walkway into the black. At this point, Hallow took the lead and stepped slowly onto the path. It was slow going at first, but after a good 10ft or so she started noticing massive stalactites appearing at the edge of her light.

The party pressed forward as the forest of toothy stones continued to grow; some at the edge of the light and others within arm's reach. When Karthalion noticed one was nearly touching their path, he chose to stick an ear up to it and listen. Listen he did, as a weird vibration tickled his ear and eventually bit into his neck. The strike caught him by surprise, but his body fought off the venomous injection. The creature, or whatever they could spot of it, was moving on the dark side of the stalactite, tapping away at the stone while shifting around for another potential assault. It was at this point Karthalion bailed. Rebel and Hallow, having been on the other side of the stalactite, decided to move forward instead.

The party split; Karthalion working his way back to the entrance of the cave while the other two worked their way further. As Hallow and Rebel walked through the growing forest of stones, they started spotting more and more moving shadows. They rushed to the end of the walkway into another pocket and found themselves welcomed by three paths. Rebel's advice was, "Keep it simple, just go straight."

As the pair headed into another tunnel, narrower than the previous ones they'd been walking through, Rebel spotted an odd pair of cracks. Halfway down the wall, across the floor, and into the other wall were cracks "marking" a 5ft area. She stepped forward with an unlit torch while Hallow offered what light she could. With a swift and solid strike, Rebel hit the crack and forced the floor to move. It revealed a platform on a swivel, and as it swung it screeched. She was thankful she didn't walk over it, but never got a chance to check for a bottom as the noise riled up something deeper. Strange shouts and barks started echoing through the tunnel and were heading directly toward them.

At this point, Hallow and Rebel bailed. They ran straight back the way they came, nearly slipping off the walkway on their return trip. The barking and howling followed them all the way to the entrance where Karthalion was keeping watch. When he heard the ladies hollering, he rushed up the rocky hill and secured a rope for a quick escape. The pair managed to escape, but the noises stopped short of revealing themselves. Karthalion threw a few branches at the cave entrance and gave a listen: He could tell the creatures were reptilian or amphibious based on their vocalizations, and they were acting more like guard dogs, barking louder if a threat was detected.

Everyone decided they'd had enough exploration for one day and wanted to head back to town. Karthalion's navigation continued to be on point as he guided the others back to Riversmeet. The session wasn't necessarily over, however. Hallow and Rebel decided to hit up a bathhouse to get the grime out, and perhaps visit more of the festival attractions (the Circus of Doom is still waiting for them. Here's hoping). Karthalion, meanwhile, purchased a shovel and spent the night resting for his next excursion.

I kind of lost count of days at this point, but I think we were like 6.5 or 7. Karthalion found his way back to the horse man pole and decided he wanted to dig it up. He discovered that there were more carvings below the ground, and spent time learning their details. Unfortunately, he touched it. While trying to shove and wiggle the pole out so he could try and yank it from the earth, he blinked and arrived elsewhere. Day turned to night, the plains and dead forest became a lush hollow.

Karthalion was disoriented, and before he could get his bearings straight he was being confronted by one of the men from the pole. The assumptions up to now came in conflict as the creature wasn't necessarily a horse man; it wore a poncho and was covered in a woolly coat. Karthalion tried to see if Scaley could speak with it in some way, but the hissing was met with an instinctive response and the viper nearly became a skewer. Karthalion retaliated with a shot to the creatures heart and immediately started looking over the pole again. It appeared to be several feet taller, the carvings not weathered but well-kept. He followed the stories down to where he left off and discovered that a creature had come from the sky after a great war. It took the living equine creatures to the stars. The major point of note was that the creature appeared to be a single horned fish with a horizontal tail. Karthalion didn't spend too much time in thought as he wanted to try and get back. He started messing with the pole again until he felt the sun's warmth, the cool breeze, and the rustle of grass. However, something had gone terribly wrong.

Karthalion looked around, trying to see if he was truly back, but all he saw was inky black. He tried speaking with Scaley, who responded with some hissing. He realized quickly that holding a conversation was difficult because he could no longer see the subtleties in his companion's movements. After some quick thinking and rough back and forth, Karthalion worked through a method of yes/no (squeeze once for yes, etc). He then put his trust in Scaley to direct him northward and hopefully back into civilization. Lucky for him, Scaley was quite the intelligent little beast and had learned quite a bit from Karthalion (Wilderness Lore proficiency). The not-so-little guy guided his friend for a day. By this point Karthalion's vision returned and he made his way to safety.

Rewards

10gp/ea (Bribes)

3xp